Originally Posted on The Coaching Tools Company as Beyond the Assessment: Planning and Facilitating a Team Strengths Session That Creates Shifts and Change | By Jennifer Britton
The power of coaching usually exists BEYOND the assessment. This article explores one of the more common assessments teams ask for which is strengths. Whether you incorporate VIA Strengths, CliftonStrengths or another, the power of a strengths assessment lies beyond the initial conversation.
After completing a strengths assessment, it is likely that team members know their profiles, have attended a debrief session, and may even have colorful reports sitting on their desks or on their cubicle walls. Sometimes, however, six months later not much has changed for the team.
The real value of a strengths assessment comes from the conversations that follow and how those conversations influence the way people collaborate, communicate, solve problems, and leverage one another’s strengths every day.
As coaches and facilitators, our role isn’t simply to explain assessment results. It’s to design an experience that helps teams translate awareness into action. This article explores several areas of focus, with questions to help deepen the conversation with your teams.
Start with purpose, not profiles
A strengths day, or process, provides an opportunity for the team to create a shared experience, have deeper conversations about themselves as a team, and boost connection.
As you go to start planning, begin with the purpose of the team event. Consider questions such as:
- What are we trying to accomplish as a team through this process?
- What opportunities or challenges are we currently facing?
- What would success look like over the next six months?
- How do we want to work together?
When strengths are connected to real work, the conversation becomes more meaningful.
Design the experience, not just the agenda
A successful strengths session is more than reviewing reports. Think about the entire experience for the team individually and collectively.
Before the session:
- Clarify the purpose of the conversation and the outcomes you want to achieve.
- Ask participants to complete their assessment, and dive into any of the supplementary materials provided by the different assessments.
- Invite team members to reflect on when they have been at their best (individually and collectively).
- Gather examples of successful team collaboration.
During the session, balance information with interaction. People learn far more by discussing and applying strengths than by listening to explanations. Leave plenty of room for dialogue, reflection, and practical application.
Move beyond “What are my strengths?”
Many sessions spend too much time helping participants understand their individual reports, without a connection to strengths with everyday work.
Some prompting questions to deepen understanding around “strengths at play” include:
- Where do these strengths show up most often?
- What work gives you energy?
- When do you perform at your best?
- Which strengths does the team rely on most?
- Which strengths may I be underutilizing?
Look for Team Patterns
On a team level, the power of a strengths session is not just in the individual focus. While it’s important to explore individual strengths, the real power of a team day is in exploring the team’s collective strengths. This conversation helps to identify what can be “dialed up, and dialed back” as we relate with others.
Invite participants to explore questions such as:
- Which strengths appear frequently across the team?
- Which perspectives are less represented?
- Where might we have blind spots? (Remember, an over-leveraged strength becomes a blind spot!)
- Whose strengths complement one another?
- Where do we unintentionally duplicate effort?
Helping teams recognize collective patterns often leads to important conversations about collaboration and decision-making.
Discuss Strengths Under Pressure
Under times of pressure – competing demands, deadlines, not enough resources – we tend to lean into our strengths and what we naturally do best. This means that under pressure, our greatest strengths can become overused.
Invite discussion around questions such as:
- How do your strengths show up during stressful situations?
- What behaviours should teammates understand?
- What support helps you do your best work?
- How can teammates recognize when a strength is becoming overused?
These conversations build empathy, trust, and psychological safety.
Connect Strengths to Current Priorities
The real value of a strengths team session is unlocked when the bridge to every day work is strengthened. A strengths team session should be seen as part of the everyday language and culture.
We want to help the team make strengths an ongoing touchpoint so that they naturally are asking themselves:
- What can we do to leverage our strengths on this project?
- Which strengths will help us navigate upcoming change?
- Where do we need additional perspectives?
- How can we intentionally partner to achieve better results?
Consider the design elements that will help to strengthen this bridge.
Create Team Agreements
The most valuable strengths sessions end with practical commitments. Invite the team to identify a small number of agreements they want to adopt moving forward.
Examples might include:
- We will intentionally involve different strengths/perspectives before making key decisions.
- We will rotate facilitation roles (note different strengths will lead meetings differently, consider how someone strong on relationship varies from strategic or influencing strengths)
- We will build on one another’s strengths during projects.
- We will check assumptions before assigning work.
- We will recognize strengths demonstrated during meetings.
These agreements help translate insight into everyday practice.
Continue the Conversation
A significant value of team coaching is the ongoing conversations. One workshop is not likely to change team culture. It is through repeated conversations that strengths become incorporated into the fabric and culture of the team.
Strengths can become part of the various team meetings including project kick-offs, onboarding, project debriefs, and also planning and performance discussions.
This ensures that strengths become part of the team’s everyday language rather than a one-time event.
Incorporating more strengths-focused questions can support the team in adopting a strengths approach. Consider these questions:
- What strengths helped us succeed recently?
- Which strengths are we relying on too heavily?
- What strengths are currently underused?
- Where could we partner differently?
- What contribution surprised you?
- How might we leverage our strengths more intentionally?
Final Thoughts
Strengths assessments create awareness. The follow-on conversations help to shape new habits and ways of working. These new practices then shape the culture of the team.
The strengths report is the starting point. The power of strengths conversations is that they help teams better understand one another, appreciate the diversity of strengths around the table, and intentionally apply those strengths to achieve meaningful results, as individuals and as a collective.
If you enjoyed this article, you may also like:
- How to Support Group and Team Coaching Clients in Enhancing Strengths also by Jennifer Britton
- 9 Powerful Ways to Grow & Leverage Strengths with Clients by Dr. Mickey Parsons, MCC, BCC
- Mastering Executive and Leadership Coaching: Practical Insights for Coaches
